Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Visible Tools, Invisible Craft: An Analysis of Textile Tools across the Iron Age South Coast of Britain

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Ancient Textile Production from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

Part of the book series: Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology ((IDCA))

  • 440 Accesses

Abstract

Textile tools are vital pieces of evidence in areas where few or no ancient textiles survive; while a lot of work has focused on the analysis of these tools, such as spindle whorls and loom weights, few studies have compared textile tools across large areas or various settlements. The prehistoric textile tools of Britain in particular have received very little attention, which has stymied our understanding of the textile industries prior to the social and cultural upheavals of the Roman conquest. This article presents the preliminary results of the author’s doctoral research analysing the Iron Age spindle whorls and loom weights from various settlements across the South coast of Britain and comparing the data with other sites within the same county and with sites from other counties. The initial results indicate a variety of textile traditions and organisation of textile production and craft specialisation.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andersson Strand E, Nosch ML (2015) Tools, textiles, and contexts: Investigating textile production in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. Ancient Textile Series 21. Oxbow Books, Oxford and Philadelphia.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber EJW (1992, third edition) Prehistoric textiles: The development of cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Age with special reference to the Aegean. Princeton University Press, Princeton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beamer J (2018) Long-handled weaving combs – a rubric for recording. Paper presented at Exploring textiles and textile working from Prehistory to AD 500: Liverpool University Textile Symposium, 29 Oct 2018.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belanová Å tolcová T, Grömer K (2010) Loom-weights, spindles and textiles. Textile production in Central Europe from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. In: Andersson Strand E, Gleba M, Mannering U, Munkholt C, Ringgaard M (eds) North European symposium for archaeological textiles X. NESAT X. Ancient Textiles Series 5. Oxbow Books, Oxford, p 9–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brailsford J, Richmond I (1952) British Museum excavation at Hod Hill, Dorset. The British Museum Quarterly 17(3): 49–50.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke B (2005) Textile production at Gordion and the Phrygian economy. In: Kealhofer L (ed.) The archaeology of Midas and the Phrygians. Recent work at Gordion. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, p 69–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brumfiel EM, Earle T (1987) Specialization, exchange, and complex societies: An introduction. In: Brumfiel EM, Earle T (eds) Specialization, exchange, and complex societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p 1–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Costin CL (1991) Craft specialization: Issues in defining, documenting, and explaining the organization of production. Archaeological Method and Theory 3:1–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunliffe B (2005, fourth edition) Iron Age communities in Britain. Routledge, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cunliffe B, Poole C (2000) Introduction: The Danebury Environs Programme: The prehistory of a Wessex landscape, Vol 1. English Heritage and Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph 49. English Heritage and Oxford University Committee for Archaeology, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutler J, Nosch M-L, Andersson Strand E (2013) Textile production in Quartier Mu. In: Poursat J-C (ed.) Fouilles exécutées à Malia. Le Quartier Mu V. Vie quotidienne et techniques au Minoen Moyen II. Études Crétoises 34. École française d’Athènes, Athènes, p 95–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeRoche CD (1995) Textile production in Britain during the first millennium B.C. Unpublished dissertation, University of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.37739.

  • Dimova B (2016) Textile production in Iron Age Thrace. European Journal of Archaeology 19(4):652–680. https://doi.org/10.1080/14619571.2016.1164457.

  • Dudley D (1956) An excavation at Bodrifty, Mulfra, near Penzance. Archaeological Journal 113:1–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrero, L.J. (Forthcoming) Visible Tools, Invisible Craft. Unpublished dissertation. Cambridge: University of Cambridge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox A, Raleigh Radford CA, Rogers EH, Shorter, AH (1949–1950) Report on the excavations at Milber Down, 1937–8. Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Exploration Society 4:27–65.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleba, M (2007) Textile production in Proto-Historic Italy: From specialists to workshops. In: Gillis C, Nosch M-LB (eds) Ancient textiles: Production, craft and society. Ancient Textiles Series 1. Oxbow Books, Oxford, p 71–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gleba M. (2008) Textile production in pre-Roman Italy. Ancient Textiles Series 4. Oxbow Books, Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grömer K (2005) Efficiency and technique – experiments with original spindle whorls. In: Bichler P, Grömer K, Hofmann-de Keijzer R, Kern A, Reschreiter H (eds) Hallstatt textiles – technical analysis, scientific investigation and experiments on Iron Age textiles. BAR S1351. Archaeopress, Oxford, p 107–116.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grömer K (2016) The art of prehistoric textile making. Veröffentlichungen der Prähistorischen Abteilung 5. Natural History Museum Vienna, Vienna.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grömer K, Kern K, Reschreiter A, Rösel-Mautendorfer H (eds) (2013) Textiles from Hallstatt. Weaving culture in Bronze and Iron Age salt mines. Textilien aus Hallstatt. Gewebte Kultur aus dem bronze- und eisenzeitlichen Salzbergwerk. Archaeolingua 29. Archaeolingua Publishers, Budapest.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kania K (2013) Soft yarns, hard facts? Evaluating the results of a large scale hand-spinning experiment. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 7:113–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-013-0167-y

  • Marín-Aguilera B (2019) Weaving rural economies: Textile production and societal complexity in Iron Age Southwestern Iberia. World Archaeology 51(2):226–251.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marín-Aguilera B, Rodríguez-González E, Celestino S, Gleba M (2019) Dressing the sacrifice: Textiles, textile production and the sacrificial economy at Casas del Turuñuelo in fifth-century BC Iberia. Antiquity 42:933–953. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2019.42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MÃ¥rtensson L, Andersson E, Nosch M–L, Batzer A (2006) Technical report: Experimental archaeology. Part 2:2 Whorl or bead? Tools and Textiles – Texts and Contexts research programme. Copenhagen: The Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research https://ctr.hum.ku.dk/research-programmes-and-projects/previous-programmes-and-projects/tools/technical_report_2-2__experimental_arcaheology.pdf, accessed 22 Jan 2021.

  • MÃ¥rtensson L, Andersson E, Nosch M–L, Batzer A (2007) Technical report: Experimental archaeology. Part 3 Loom weights. Tools and Textiles – Texts and Contexts research programme. Copenhagen: The Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research https://ctr.hum.ku.dk/research-programmes-and-projects/previous-programmes-and-projects/tools/technical_report_3__experimental_archaeology.pdf, accessed 22 Jan 2021.

  • MÃ¥rtensson L, Nosch M–L, Andersson Strand E (2009) The shape of things: Understanding a loom weight. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 28(4):373–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poole C (1984) The structural use of daub, clay, and timber. In: Cunliffe B (ed.) Danebury: An Iron Age hillfort in Hampshire. Vol. 1: The excavations 1969–1978: The site. Council of British Archaeology Research Report 52:110–123.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silvester RJ (1986) The later prehistoric and Roman material from Kent’s Cavern, Torquay. Devon Archaeological Society Proceedings 44: 9–38

    Google Scholar 

  • Stöllner T (2005) More than old rags – textiles from the Iron Age salt-mine at the Dürrnberg. In: Bichler P, Grömer K, Hofmann-de Keijzer R, Kern A, Reschreiter H. (eds) Hallstatt textiles – technical analysis, scientific investigation and experiments on Iron Age Textiles. BAR S1351, Oxford, p 161–174.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuohy T (1995) Prehistoric combs of antler and bone. Unpublished dissertation, University of Exeter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tuohy T (1999) Prehistoric combs of antler and bone: Vols 1, 2. BAR 285. Archaeopress, London.

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Leeuw S (1977) Towards a study in the economics of pottery making. In: Beek BL, Brant RW, Gruenman van Watteringe W (eds) Ex Horreo. Cingvla 4. Albert Egges van Griffen Instituut voor Prae- en Protohistorie, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, p 68–76.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Lewis Ferrero

Authors
  1. Lewis Ferrero
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lewis Ferrero .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

    Agata Ulanowska

  2. Department of Prehistory, Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

    Karina Grömer

  3. Textile Research, Laboratory Department, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels, Belgium

    Ina Vanden Berghe

  4. Faculty of Humanities, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter, UK

    Magdalena Öhrman

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Ferrero, L. (2022). Visible Tools, Invisible Craft: An Analysis of Textile Tools across the Iron Age South Coast of Britain. In: Ulanowska, A., Grömer, K., Vanden Berghe, I., Öhrman, M. (eds) Ancient Textile Production from an Interdisciplinary Perspective. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92170-5_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92170-5_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-92169-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-92170-5

  • eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation